John

Born 1946. Since retiring (maths teacher) have spent an increasing amount of time on crosswords, something that was impossible before – am not in the sub-ten minutes league and surely never will be. Do The Times every day (more often than not in over half an hour), also an assortment of other puzzles. Did Azed monthly for some years and entered his clue-setting competitions, occasionally with some success (I even won once, had 38 VHCs and 140 HCs — yes, I kept a record, sad isn't it) but not enough for my liking. I've set a few crosswords: five in Oxford Today, a few on Derek Harrison's website, and five in The Independent, under the name Vernon. Also play a lot of chess and golf, although as I age I'm getting weaker at both.

Independent 8,610 by Radian

Tue May 20, 2014 at 9:16 am by John

A high-quality crossword from Radian which took me longer than it should have done in retrospect, since the clues are generally quite clear, as witness the fact that many of the explanations below have been explained without words.

The theme is 18ac words, of which we have examples in 11ac (probably), 25ac, 13dn, 15dn, 19dn and no doubt several others that I can’t immediately see. There are some words, like 4dn or 23dn, whose letters are formed in a certain way, but they are not so far as I know 18ac words.

Definitions in italics.

Independent 8,605 by Dac

Wed May 14, 2014 at 11:02 am by John

What can be said that hasn’t already been said? The usual perfect construction, with a personal slight dislike of the word ‘some’ as a hidden indicator.

Definitions in italics.

Independent 8,600 by Monk

Thu May 8, 2014 at 11:55 amThu May 8, 2014 at 11:02 am by John

Monk is always good. There are some excellent clues here and one or two where I’d be grateful for a little explanation. We differ over the matter of CDs, but Monk isn’t the only setter who uses them. However, if there were no well-known setters who dislike them I’d keep quiet.

Surprise surprise — I’ve seen the Nina, or at any rate as much of it as I’m likely to see: look at the horizontal unchecked letters in the middle followed by the vertical unchecked letters in the middle, but quite where the climax of it all is I can’t see.

Definitions in italics.

Independent 8,595 by Phi

Fri July 27, 2018 at 9:23 amFri May 2, 2014 at 10:42 am by John

The usual excellent crossword from Phi, who never seems to miss a Friday. Apparently there’s nothing about which I’m uncomfortable, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t misinterpreted something somewhere.

The unchecked letters at the top and bottom suggest a Nina, but evidently not. Anyway Phi’s Ninas are always far more obscure than this and will probably refer to some work of literature that I’ve never heard of, so there’s no point in looking. I’ll leave that to the hunters.

Definitions in italics.

AZED 2,185

Sun April 27, 2014 at 12:05 am by John

The usual Azed, where the wordplay is so precise that you can often be pretty sure of the answers without knowing the words. I solved most of this when away for the weekend and came home with many unknown words written by the clues but not yet in the grid, ready for me to look them up in Chambers.

I thought that 19dn was very good, but my godson had a point when he opined that the ‘e.g.’ takes away from the surface reading. However, Azed (but not all setters, including some in The Times) clearly abhors a definition by example. And rightly so in my opinion.

Definitions in italics.

Independent 8,586 by Raich

Tue April 22, 2014 at 1:39 pmTue April 22, 2014 at 11:04 am by John

My goodness I was lucky as a blogger. Yesterday I never did the Independent crossword, being away, but by all accounts it was difficult. Today’s offering from Raich was much more the sort of … Read more >>

Independent 8,581 by Dac

Wed April 16, 2014 at 1:39 am by John

I used to blog quite often after midnight, when the crossword for the following day appeared on the website, but stopped doing so because I would become rather sleepy and tended to make silly mistakes. On Tuesday evening I had a long and ultimately fruitless game of chess, so was wide awake at midnight and decided to revert to old habits. There may be silly mistakes in the blog: certainly there were several answers where the parsing was not clear to me until I spent quite some time on them, and perhaps in the morning I would not have felt that this was on the tricky side for Dac.

All the usual remarks about Dac go without saying.

Definitions in italics.

Independent 8,576 by Scorpion

Thu April 10, 2014 at 11:11 am by John

As usual we have a nice, quite difficult but not overly so, crossword from Scorpion. There is one on which I’m quite lost and a couple of others where I’m probably not seeing it all, but as usual …

There seem to be more than the usual number of characters in films and sport, but without any apparent pattern, so I’ll leave it to the eagle-eyed to see if anything’s happening.

Definitions in italics.

Independent 8,571 by Phi

Fri August 10, 2018 at 9:32 amFri April 4, 2014 at 10:33 am by John

The standard Phi: all very good and one can hardly find fault with any of the clues, some of which are nice.

I’m not quite sure what the theme is: there are many Australian towns dotted around the grid, and also several Scottish ones, and Perth could be either, but is there anything further?

Definitions in italics.

Independent 8,562 by Crosophile

Tue March 25, 2014 at 10:36 am by John

I wonder what’s lined up for tomorrow, since the Crosophile puzzle which would normally appear on the last Wednesday of the month is a day early. No point in trying to guess, since it’s probably a significant anniversary of some football club or of the formation of some group.

Nothing to get very excited about today, but a good solid performance from Crosophile. In one or two places I have my doubts but I expect that someone will put me right. As for a Nina, the two words along the top suggest that there are things to be found in the puzzle but my knowledge of them is rather shaky.

Definitions in italics.

Independent 8,557 by Dac

Wed March 19, 2014 at 10:24 am by John

Nothing to say beyond what one usually says. Dac is as always on fine form and the surfaces and soundness of all the clues are exemplary.

Definitions in italics.

AZED 2,179

Sun March 16, 2014 at 12:05 am by John

How Azed manages to cope with all these words I simply don’t know. Practically every time there is at least one that I’ve never heard of either in the answer or in the … Read more >>

Independent 8,552 by Monk

Thu March 13, 2014 at 11:20 am by John

Is it my imagination or are we seeing more of Monk than recently? If so, that’s a thoroughly good thing, despite my misgivings about one or two clues, which are given in the … Read more >>

Independent 8,547 by Phi

Fri July 6, 2018 at 10:10 amFri March 7, 2014 at 11:06 am by John

The usual pleasant and sound crossword from Phi. I can’t see that there is anything really to ask questions about, which suggests to me that there will be few comments, since everything seems to have been understood.

The last time I blogged someone suggested that I described the Nina at the end of the clues, not here, so as not to give anything away before the reader begins (something the software I use doesn’t seem to allow). No danger of anything being given away this time, though. I can’t see anything, but I’ve learnt through experience not to agonise for too long over Phi’s Ninas.

Definitions in italics.

Independent 8,538 by Alchemi

Tue February 25, 2014 at 10:55 pmTue February 25, 2014 at 10:54 am by John

Today’s offering from Alchemi is a very pleasant, not too difficult but perfectly challenging, crossword. There are one or two places where pedants would grumble, but few, and I think all is well … Read more >>